External pick?

Phone Man said:

DrBejar said:

how do I do this "image disk'? and how does it work in case of a super nasty virus hits me or something happens?

An image is a complete copy of a partition or disk. Windows 7 has a built in program but a lot of us like Macrium Reflex which has a free version and works great. I image my C: partition which contains my OS and programs. I also image other partitions as need but I use SyncToy by MS for my pics and video since they change a lot.

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

Jim

I downloaded Macrium Reflect and I'm a noob, have no idea how to do it.
I think I missed the tutorial

First things first.

What do you want to back up??

Your Windows installation?

Your mp3 collection?

Your tax returns?

Your term papers?

More info needed. Macrium may be a good or bad choice, depending on what you want to back up.

How many partitions do you have on your main hard drive?? If you look in Windows Explorer, do you see only C? Or do you also see D or E or F?

ignatzatsonic said:

First things first.

What do you want to back up??

Your Windows installation?

Your mp3 collection?

Your tax returns?

Your term papers?

More info needed. Macrium may be a good or bad choice, depending on what you want to back up.

How many partitions do you have on your main hard drive?? If you look in Windows Explorer, do you see only C? Or do you also see D or E or F?

Just want to backup windows, just incase of a catastrophical situation.
I can save all my mp3 songs in my external when it comes in.
No taxes for my for a while.
I can save my term papers in my flash drive.

I have C and (D and E are dvd dives)

DrBejar said:

Just want to backup windows, just incase of a catastrophical situation.

I have C and (D and E are dvd dives)

Ok.

Macrium is an excellent choice for that--probably the best choice.

It has a built in "wizard" that walks you through the process.

You would make an image of C only and you would have to save it on some other drive--your new external would be the most likely spot. The image file would be quite large---roughly half the size of the occupied space of your C drive. Just make a folder called "Macrium images" on your new external and save the Macrium image to that location.

I assume your personal data is on C also.

But you should be prepared for imaging to not work. What would you do if you had a catastrophe and Macrium did not rescue you and you have therefore lost both Windows and your valuable files?

You would go to Plan B--reinstalling Windows from your discs and restoring your data from your backups.

If you don't have discs, your first priority (before Macrium) would be to make some.